Letters to the Editor | Sept. 23, 2024

A few Saturdays ago, I attended the “No Arena in Chinatown” rally outside City Hall. I was heartened to see a diversity of protesters supporting the residents of Chinatown in their fight. I am an African American woman from Germantown and I do not support the arena project for Chinatown. I am not a fan of arena projects, but if one must be built here in Philadelphia, why not somewhere else? Just know that there are folks across the city from various backgrounds who also say, unequivocally, no arena in Chinatown!

Janice Tosto, Germantown

If the Sixers arena gets built on Market Street, the city needs to include in the deal a provision that if and when the team grows tired of an aging arena, it is responsible for demolition and removal. Otherwise, the Sixers will simply abandon it, creating an eyesore and dumping the costs on the city.

David Otwell, Philadelphia

Some say that by turning her back on Chinatown neighbors and moving forward with the construction of 76 Place, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has made the best decision for the whole city. I wonder why these urban washout projects are never developed in predominantly white neighborhoods, only in those inhabited by people of color. The very concept that there is a territory that needs to be sacrificed for the common good — and its people dismissed and displaced — brings us back to a shameful episode of American history: the colonization and genocide of Native Americans.

It is not a coincidence that a delegation of the Apache Nation joined one of the most recent “No Arena in Chinatown” rallies. History teaches us that wiping out landmark territories and communities is never done for the common good, but instead to multiply the wealth of those who are already affluent. Let’s learn from our history and not shatter a neighborhood for the promise of economic wealth. Indeed, Philadelphia remains poor, despite having signed on to countless development projects just like this one in the past, under all the same promises we’re hearing now. We must finally realize that putting people down will never be the way to uplift our city.

Rodrigo Fernández, Philadelphia

It is time for public sector decision-makers and policymakers to be proactive in working with the Chinatown community to find the right mix of tools, policies, and strategies that will protect not only its historic buildings but also the people and intangible heritage qualities that make Chinatown special. Given all the development pressures facing Chinatown, which are likely to continue whether the arena project goes forward or not, there are municipal regulatory tools available that could protect the neighborhood’s built environment and limit unwanted real estate speculation and out-of-scale development.

These include the creation of a municipal historic district, which would impose controls on building alterations and demolition. Or a neighborhood conservation overlay, which allows communities to set standards for materials, setbacks, massing, and height of new developments. These tools can help manage change, reduce the risk of displacement, and slow the forces of gentrification. Yet, they are focused primarily on protecting buildings, and as such are not ideally equipped to safeguard the intangible qualities that give Chinatown its unique sense of place.

Approaches adopted by other cities include the creation of cultural heritage districts to help identify and protect intangible qualities that give neighborhoods like Chinatown their unique sense of place; legacy business programs that identify long-standing independent businesses and provide targeted incentives to sustain their longevity and success; and more flexible historic districts that impose fewer design controls while reducing the risk of demolition.

Chinatown has long been a beacon of resilience. Its people have resisted multiple projects that could have displaced residents and undermined its ethnic identity. While this legacy of resistance and community organizing is admirable, it shouldn’t be the community’s sole responsibility to defend its existence. We urge the city and other decision-makers to negotiate in good faith to implement policy solutions that ensure growth doesn’t pose an existential threat to this historic neighborhood.

Paul Steinke, executive director, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia

Although Hamas is responsible for the recent deaths of six Israeli hostages, Benjamin Netanyahu is an unindicted coconspirator. Yes, he has been able to secure the freedom of some hostages in prisoner swaps, but he has clearly abandoned this approach to appear strong through his continuing genocide against Palestinians. (As a 71-year-old American Jew, I am well aware that the genocide charge echoes the Nazi atrocities against my own people. However, while the scale is different, the dynamic is apt.)

Even if additional hostages are found alive and are released, the long-term and damaging effects of Netanyahu’s actions will be profound. It is reasonable to suppose that, for decades to come, Israel will be seen as an international pariah, one that will be boycotted and starved of investment. Traveling Israelis may be newly banned from some countries and shunned by others. An entire generation of younger American Jews are becoming politically polarized against their parents and grandparents over the issue of Netanyahu’s war. Many Jewish parents in our own country may well hesitate to send their children on a free birthright trip to Israel, fearing new attacks upon a nation that is under siege, and whose leader has abandoned its ideals.

Perhaps most damningly, many young survivors of Israel’s wholesale attacks on noncombatants are likely to evolve from being today’s traumatized victims to becoming tomorrow’s members of Hamas — and make no mistake, they have been indirectly recruited through Netanyahu’s own brutality. In short, by any measure — and as evidenced by massive demonstrations of Israelis against their leader — Netanyahu has failed. He must resign.

Bill Dingfelder, Philadelphia

Shame on those leaders who did not attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech to Congress. Antisemitism can take many forms. My parents escaped Germany in the late 1930s. Many of my relatives, however, did not and were among the six million Jews murdered by Hitler. Which countries stood up against Germany to prevent this massacre? It seemed that most countries and most people really did not care enough to do so. How vocal were newspapers like the New York Times?

I grew up experiencing rural small-town antisemitism and experienced more sophisticated antisemitism as a teen in boarding school. I have also seen evidence of antisemitism in prestigious medical schools, one of which I attended. The unprovoked, murderous, awful Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis is unforgivable. The additional strategy by Hamas of taking hostages was also egregious.

The ongoing nearly constant threat of missile attacks on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran is awful and unacceptable but is rarely discussed. It’s instead seen as par for the course. Could you imagine what the U.S. would do if comparable attacks were occurring from Mexico? Those politicians who did not attend Netanyahu’s speech — which likely included Jews — did something shameful and unforgivable. Antisemitism can sometimes be latent but is never gone, and its many overt manifestations need to be called out. Anti-Israel behavior is explicitly a form of antisemitism, and Israel has every right to defend itself.

Gary P. Wormser, New York

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